(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for estimating a path, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for estimating a path for indoor localization.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the spread of personal mobile devices that are capable of providing location information has been rapidly expanding, and location and geographic information provision services using mobile devices are also rapidly growing. In line with this trend, there are ongoing efforts to properly provide continuous indoor/outdoor localization services using an absolute positioning solution, such as a GPS (global positioning system), and an estimated navigation solution, such as an INS (inertial navigation system) having a multi-sensor structure, without being limited to existing services for the provision of outdoor location information.
A widely used indoor localization algorithm for such a system is an algorithm which additionally uses geographic information about a user's location to correct the location of the user, thereby reducing positioning errors and increasing the accuracy of location information. On the contrary, unlike outdoor localization, an indoor localization algorithm has the problem that it is difficult to reduce positioning errors by user position correction because absolute positioning information such as a GPS is not provided, related topographic information such as building information is hard to obtain, and it is difficult to create accurate map information due to the complexity of the structure of a building.
To solve this problem, much research has been conducted to acquire indoor routing information. Typical methods for this include a method which acquires a map by indoor environmental scanning using a distance measurement sensor such as an ultrasonic sensor, a laser, an infrared sensor, etc., and a method in which, if a user enters an indoor space, information about an indoor path, such as a map or drawing, is transmitted to the user via other information transport paths so that the user can take advantage of this information.
However, the method using a distance measurement sensor is problematic in that an additional sensor for indoor environmental scanning needs to be mounted in a current widely used mobile device of the user. Also, the method of providing information about an indoor path is disadvantageous in that it is necessary to produce information about an indoor environment such as buildings in advance, and process it in a form available to the user.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.